On Aug 24, 1955, Doris Silver Oestreicher, heiress to the fifth-largest grocery chain in the country, Food Fair Stores Inc, would be found dead in the slums of Philidelphia. She had married only two months before her death to a Miami policeman named Earl Oestreicher. Her mother, Gertrude Silver, was appalled and demanded she gets an annulment. No one would ever be good enough for her daughter.
A Bartender and a Hairdresser
A writer for the Philadelphia Bulletin, Bayard Brunt, worked diligently on finding out precisely what had happened to Doris Oestreicher. It first was reported to him that she had died at a friend’s house. A good reporter never uses a tip without checking it out.
Furthermore, by digging into the story, he found out that she had been taken to the city morgue and placed under “Shirley Silver,” not Doris. If she had died in a friend’s house, why give her a different name? When brought in the night before, the address provided was her parents. Brunt had a reputation for digging until he uncovered the truth; by doing so, he had the nickname “Bulldog” in the city room.
He eventually found out that she was found dead at the apartment of Milton and Rosalie Schwartz, who resided in the slums of Philadelphia.
Milton, a bartender, and Rosalie, a hairdresser, lived in a two-bedroom, $40 dollar-a-month ghetto apartment. Bayard could not reason why Mrs. Oestreicher would have been in such a place. Surely this couple could not be friends. The reason would leave three people in a coroner’s inquest and then some in jail.
The Awful Truth
First, as stated above, Doris was a young 22-year-old heiress who lived under her mother’s watchful eye. Her life was not her own. Furthermore, as stated earlier, she married a man not accepted by her mother.
Returning home from their honeymoon Doris went quickly to her mother telling of the news of a baby. Gertrude found this unacceptable. In her fury Gertrude would devise a plan to have the marriage annulled, and a baby would not allow this to happen.
Working the next day quickly, Gertrude took Doris to their family physician. He confirmed the pregnancy, and the mother related how displeased this made her. Gertrude shouted to him to “do something about it.” The doctor refused to comply with this order. He knew exactly what the mother wanted and also knew it was illegal.
Although not thinking of her daughter first, Gertrude set her plan into action by finding the Schwartzs. She would then accompany Doris to their apartment and make the baby go away.
Arriving there, Doris was made to lie down on the bed, strip down to her bra, and was given a compound of oils, ground-up cinchona [ bark used to make quinine], and slippery-elm bark [ a plant used internally that can damage or even kill if used for abortions.] Meanwhile, Doris was getting quite ill as this concoction worked to abort the baby. You see, bits of the bark given to her reached her bloodstream and lungs and killed her.
The Aftermath
Gertrude, in a state of shock, called her husband. He, not realizing what happened, hurried over. The Silver’s called their family physician; a doctor living across the street from the Schwartz’s was also reached. Both doctors declared there was no hope.
When Medical Examiner Melville Aston received the call about a body brought into the city morgue, he was surprised to see who it was. Moreover, told by her family that she had died due to an allergy, he had agreed to release the body.
Now let us go back to “Bulldog” Brunt, the news reporter who was still digging and wanted to know what kind of allergy would have killed her. He was sure there was to be an autopsy. Mr. Brunt was told that her allergist would sign the death certificate. With this information, “Bulldog” reached out to him to find out the name of the allergy that killed the young heiress, and why it did not have a remedy. Surprized to learn that the allergist knew nothing about the death and had never intended to sign a death notice for her. Cover-up!
Now that the story the family gave was proved false, a coroner’s inquest was arranged, and three people arrested for the death of Doris Silver Oestreicher. Gertrude Silver was in such shock that she was placed in an institution to recover first. The Schwartz stood trial first and was found guilty of performing an illegal abortion resulting in death.
This story was set in 1955, and even then, abortion was illegal. Mr. and Mrs. Schwartz were sentenced to prison.
Mrs. Gertrude Silver recovered and was put on trial. In her testamony she related an entirely different version of her daughter’s death. She was found not guilty even though she was the spearhead of this casualty. The court believed that her punishment would be that she had lost a daughter, and that was the cause of it.
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This awful end to a young woman’s life happened in 1955. Abortions were always illegal until Roe V. Wade.
Women who sought out an abortion would teeter on a thin line between losing the baby and most probably their own life. With nothing regulated, here are some ways abortions were performed from the early 1880s to the 1970s and the untrained people who did them.
- Women were given various medicines such as Quinine
- Blackroot and Cedar root
- Pennyroyal, Aloes, and turpentine
- Scalding baths and gin
- Extreme exertion
- A controlled fall down a flight of stairs
- Veterinary medicines
- Knitting needles and screwdrivers
In those times, it did not matter your occupation. Anyone could do an abortion for money.
- Exterminator
- Physical Therapist
- Produce men
- Housewives
- Pharmacist
- Bartenders
- Hairdressers
- Veterinarians
I found and did this story because of what is happening in our country right now. It does not matter if you are Pro-Life or Pro-Choice; no woman should ever have to endure such techniques again because sometimes they have no other choice.